THE CITY REBORN FROM THE ASHES OF AMERICA'S MOST DISASTROUS FOREST FIRE

Two more LCS ships to be built by Marinette Marine.

Marinette Marine To Build More Littoral Combat Ships

On Monday, Mar. 4, the U.S. Navy announced contract awards for two more Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to be built by Marinette Marine in Marinette and two more to be built by Austal USA, Mobile, Ala,

The Lockheed Martin-led team builds the odd numbered Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and Austal the even numbers ships. The Marinette Marine contract is for $696,629,123 for July 2018 completion and Austal contact is $682,721,789 for June 2018 completion. The contracts are under a multi-billion dollar 10 ship contract for each firm originally awarded in 2010.

Names for the new ships will be announced at a future date. In Marinette and Menominee counties there had been a strong letter writing campaign to name one LCS the USS Marinette. Currently Marinette Marine is building the LCS 5 Milwaukee, LCS 7 Detroit and LCS 9 Little Rock. The new contract is for the LCS 13 and LCS 15.

With each ship, the Lockheed Martin-led industry team incorporates lessons learned from our lead ship, decreasing costs and improving efficiency, said Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ship Systems for Lockheed Martin. Weve partnered with the Navy each step of the way to ensure that these multi-mission ships have the most sophisticated technologies on board to help sailors manage and monitor its systems.

Announcement of the new LCS contract brought a sigh of relief as breaths had been held because of the political budget battle currently going on in Washington, D.C. and $85 billion in cuts taking effect on Mar. 1.

As with the first six ships, Marinette Marine Corp., a Fincantieri company, will build the latest Freedom variants in its northeast Wisconsin shipyard. Naval architect Gibbs & Cox of Arlington, Va., provides engineering and sustainment support. Nearly 900 companies in 43 states contribute to the Freedom variants, including their mission packages.

Designed to defeat threats and dominate in coastal waters, the Navys newest surface combatant is a fast, maneuverable and networked ship. LCS provides the capabilities and flexibility to execute focused missions, such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare.

USS Freedom, the nations first LCS, set sail from its home port in San Diego, Ca. on Mar. 1 for a 10-month deployment in Southeast Asia. USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) was delivered two months early and commissioned in Sept.